[color=blue]I think Tepig is good as a starter because i just started literaly 3-4 days ago on in april 2012 and i chose tepig and he has been winning the trainer battles and plus the last evoltion is wicked-awesome.

Oshawott and snivy are the best in my opinion tepig is also good ive used everyone of they each have their strengths and weaknesses. Serperior is the fastest but has the lowest attack and sp. attack and good defense and sp. defense. Emboar is the slowest but has the best attack and fairly good sp. attack. Samurott is my personal favorite has the best sp. attack and fairly good attack and speed. It really just depends which one you like.

My own personal feelings on the starters is that, despite me never choosing water types in previous games, I choose Oshawott after a bit of research. Why you might ask? There are very few water pokemon before the national dex, and most of those suck. Oshawott is one of three decent options.

Emboar might technically be the strongest but Darmanitan completely outclasses it, imo, and as for the fighting half I'm partial to scrafty given it's secondary dark typing gives it an immunity to one of it's weaknesses!

Snivy, oh how I've wanted to use one of the snake pokemon. Too bad I can't find any justification for using it over Sawsbuck, Lilligant or Leavanny.

So my pick for the best starter of the game doesn't actually a lot to do with the merits of any of the 3 starter pokemon, but the merits (or lack of in the case of water) of other pokemon available to be caught.

I would recommend the water type, Snivy, mainly because it is stronger against the first couple of gyms. That should give you enough time to get a decent, balanced team together for the rest of the gyms and the elite four etc.

Pokemon have over used Fire-Fighting types (Torchick [sp?] (the final evolution is a fire-fight type), Chimchar etc), so Tepig may not be everybodies cup of tea. Snivy the grass type is weak against the first couple of gyms, so you could end up with problems.

Then again, it's all about opinion and how fast you can get a varied team together. If you are new to the game, I would suggest Snivy or Tepig (fire or water type) since they are strong or neutral against the first couple of gyms (apart from the first gym, which always has your weakness), meaning you can experiment with the line up of your team. If you are more experienced with the pokemon you encounter on the game, or you want a challenge, go for Snivy.

Well I look at it by type advantage against gym leaders/elite 4. The first gym none have an advantage. The second gym, the normal type gym, only religion has an advantage in the slightest, while the others aren't at any disadvantage. Third gym, tepid has a big advantage (fire on bug type...) while snivy has a disadvantage, easily overcome by a good flying type, or the elemental monkey pokemon that you got early on. Fourth gym, electric, oshawatt has a disagvantage, while snivy has an odd advantage (electric is weak on grass, though emolga is also flying). Oshawott's disadvantage could be overcome by a rock type which also learns a fair-enough ground type move. The fifth gym, ground, each has different advantages. Tepig has advantages against Krokorok and excadril, while having a disadvantage against palpitoad. Also, all of the three have strong ground type moves. Snivy has a good advantage against palpitoad and krokorok, while normally effective on excadrill. Also, snivy is strong against ground type moves. Oshawott has an advantage over krokorok and excadrill, while not having an advantage or disadvantage against palpitoad. The sixth gym, flying, both snivy and tepig have a major disadvantages. Oshawott has no advantages. This is overcome by a strong electric (I recommend Zebstrika). The seventh gym, ice, is very tough with snivy, for obvious reasons. This is overcome by a fire or fighting type (personally, I recommend litwick or its evolutions over Pansear/semisear). Tepig has type advantage (both fire AND fighting...). Oshawott has a small advantage of ice being weak on water. The last gym is just tough. None of the three starters have very good attacks for fighting Dragon types. I reccomend either just training a strong ice/dragon pokemon (a tough task) or by just fighting through with a bunch of strong-as-*bleep* pokemon and using normally effective moves. Now for the fun part. The Elite 4. The first elite, shauntal, uses ghost types. Snivy has a fair advantage against Jellicent and Golurk. To be honest, I would still just recommend liteick's final evolution (get any good moves in before you use the stone!). Next is Grimsley, the dark type. Tepig's final form has a very good advantage. If you don't use tepig, then I would just recommend either getting a good fighting type (possibly Throw or Sawk) or just battle through. Then comes Caitlin, the psychic. Tepig has a major DISadvantage here. Snivy and Oshawott have no advantages here. For the third time, I recommend Litwick's evolutions (I guess you know which pokemon I really like?). Last is Marshall, the fighter. None of the starters have an advantage here. I recommend a psychic pokemon, possibly a Gothitelle or Reuniclus. Either that, or (since you had better have it) Chandelure (the final form of Litwick) since fighting is completely ineffective on Ghost. Now, you would think that you would fight the champion. Wrong. Now, after a cutscene, you go to N's castle. You are able to go leave the castle hy means of a plasma grunt, somewhere far off in a distant room in the castle, in order to get pokemon to fight bitches with. I will give you a recommendation of what to use to fight;Reshiram/Zekrom, your starter, Chandelure, Zebstrika, fighting pokemon of your choice (if you chose tepig, then I would recommend a grass pokemon of sorts) ground pokemon of your choice (ideally all in the lvl. 50 range, or else you're extremely butt*bleep*ed.) First, you fight N. The legendary dragons fight. for his Caracosta, I recommend you use Zebstrika, and same for archeops. For Vanillux and Klinklang, I would use Chandelure.for Zoruark, use the fighting type. Next comes Ghetsis, the big cheese of Team Plasma. For his Cofagrigus, use Chandelure. For his bouffalant and bisharp, use the fighting type, or use Chandelure (normal doesn't affect ghost, and fire is super effective on steel). On elektross, use the ground type. On Seismetoad, either: Use Snivy if you chose him, use the grass type that I specifically told you to bring if you chose Tepig, or just battle through with your Oshawott. His last pokemon is Hydreigon. I would just use the legendary dragon. Use this however you want to choose your starter. Sorry for any misspellings, I'm trying to do this on my kindle fire...